My Second Postpartum Experience: 6 Weeks of Bliss
As I hit my 6 week mark postpartum with my second child I sit here and reflect. When I think back over these past 6 weeks I feel an overwhelming sense of joy and gratitude. If you have read the blog post about my first, more traumatic postpartum experience you may understand my relief and extra sense of gratitude. This was like my chance for a “do-over” and Karma seems to have had mercy enough to even the scales for me. I can attribute the success of this postpartum to many things and people, my husband, my mother, my son, daughter, and myself playing the key roles. The lack of a global pandemic and dying parent are pretty good starters, so I’m already starting off grateful. My birth was pretty easy with no tearing or injuries, and my baby girl was born health with a pretty easy-going disposition. More gratitude. My mother spent the first two weeks with my family, caring and cooking for us and occupying my 4 year old son. Gratitude. My husband has been able to be home with us for these past 6 weeks. More gratitude. When it comes to my high energy, sassy, and sometimes possessive son, my expectations had been set to, lets be honest…”shit show”. However, I have been amazed at the beautiful love, tenderness, generosity, and care he has displayed toward his sister so far. So much gratitude!
Having gone through this postpartum and newborn stage before I’m already ahead when it comes to experience and confidence which has given a sense of ease and comfort. Thanks to the knowledge I have gained through my postpartum doula training I was able to confidently prep, plan, and implement many key practices in my parenting and to aid and ease my postpartum period. Of course as a postpartum doula I would do the same for my clients and have been grateful to personally benefit as well. I’ll share a few of my ease-makers here.
Postpartum nutrition is so important for the woman’s physical and mental recovery as well as for milk production. For this reason I spent time before baby came gathering appropriately nurturing recipes for meals, snacks, and, beverages. I gathered ingredients to stock my pantry and freezer. Leading up to the birth I began prepping extra at dinner so that I could freeze half for later, I prepared and froze slow cooked meats to use in meals later, and I made bone broth to freeze. When my mom was here she used my recipes and cooked for our family. She prepped nursing snacks and drinks for me, as well as cooked some additional meals and broth to stock my freezer for after she left. I had a VERY full freezer. Thanks to all this prep and planning I didn’t have to cook a full meal for at least a month. This really allowed me the physical and mental space to recover and bond with my kids.
My mom and husband also took over housework , and I stayed inside for the first two weeks and did very little aside from my two, most important jobs. Those were to relax so that I could use my energy to heal and to bond with my new baby and son. And to feed my daughter. Even though I had been through the breastfeeding journey before, each baby is different and it can take some time and practice to get it going just right. My nipples went through the wringer during this time! After that, I found it very cathartic to get outside everyday, for a little bit of sunshine and fresh air.
My baby eats and sleeps on her own schedule…mostly. I have subscribed to the Possums Approach when it comes to my daughter’s sleep. The gist of this approach is basically just relaxing about daytime sleep patterns, which really frees up a whole load of mental stress and gives freedom to go about my day as needed without worrying about nap schedules. My baby sleeps wherever and whenever she is tired, whether it be while I’m wearing her in a wrap, holding her on my chest, in the stroller or other safe sleep space. The only scheduled sleep she has is at night. In order to help encourage her circadian rhythm, daytime sleep is in full daylight with normal noise and activities and nighttime sleep is calm, dark, and quiet, aside from a sound machine and red light that I use during feeds. I have a brief routine during nighttime wake windows, all without leaving my bed, which has allowed us both to quickly get back to sleep and maximize my rest, so I haven’t actually been very tired in my postpartum thus far. (I will write another blog post about my night time sleep routine, so stay tuned.) It also has been helpful that in the morning when our kiddos are ready to start the day my husband has been waking to give a bottle, make breakfast, etc, allowing me a couple more hours to snooze. Common advice for new parents is “sleep when they sleep”, but while my body doesn’t generally allow me to nap during the day my nighttime sleep is everything!
Did I mention gratitude?! The theme of my postpartum this second time around. I can’t really imagine it having gone any better (well, I could have done without the agonizing nipple pain those first couple weeks, but aside from that!). I’m fortunate that I have been able to use my training and experience as a postpartum doula coupled with the practical help of my family. It has reminded me once again the need and value that I provide to my clients. Thanks to preparedness, minimizing stressors, loving help from my family, and karma’s grace I have had a beautiful second postpartum experience. One that I know will travel with me throughout my life and conjure gratitude each time I think back on it.
